The $200 Black Friday Giveaway!

Yesssirrr, got another $200 smackers in cash visa card for y’all! To help you get your Black Friday on next week… I think $200 can get you quite a few presents, yeah? :)

This week’s giveaway comes to you from my friends at RetailMeNot – a great coupon site that’s been rockin’ it for years now, way before I even knew what blogging was :) And with over 500,000 coupons at over 60,000 stores, you’ll def. find some deals to take advantage of.

So def. add them to your list of sites to check out this holiday season so you can keep more of those sexy little dollars in your pockets. If you need some motivation, just put this voice memo I created for you on rotation and it’ll be sure to pump you up ;)

How to Win this $200 Visa Gift Card

For a chance to win this $200, you’ll have to do something you’re probably never done in your life before. It might sound kinda scary at first, but I promise you it won’t hurt. Are you ready? You sure?

Okay, to enter for a chance to win this $200 you will have to… bum bum bum… Leave a comment below! *Gasp!* And that comment will have to answer this (also scary) question:

How much do you plan on spending on Xmas gifts this year?
(And for how many people?)

I know, I know, freaky stuff ;) If you can handle answering such a question though, you shall be entered into this drawing of a $200 Visa gift card and Random.org will be selecting the winner shortly after this Sunday night, November 24th so we can shoot you over the card in time.

Good luck, my sexy little savers! And thanks again to RetailMeNot.com for always being so cool and giving us hundreds of dollars to give away every year! Rock n’ Roll!

———————-This giveaway is open to US citizens only (sorry!) 18+, and it is also in partnership with RetailMeNot. But of course all opinions, style, and witty words are mine. Word.

$500 for 7 people and 1 gift exchange (one of those people is my new granddaughter so making myself not go overboard lol). I typically allot $100 per son and $50 for any SO but usually end up running under budget depending on what the requests are for the year.

I’m from a family that goes big for Christmas, and there’s no way around it without hurting feelings. My husband’s present will be $400, but I’ve been saving for it and owe him for skipping his birthday present while in school this year. We’ll spend another $400ish on our parents and the other close family I buy for.

2 adult sons ~$100 each
2 sets of parental units will vary, perhaps $50ish each set
BF — no idea, what do you get for a single guy who has the stuff he wants?
2-3 friend-types if I can think of right gift ~$20-25 eacdh
company gift exchange/white elephant – $20 (I love these, they are a blast!)

to Aimee:
The time involved in your gifts is emotionally invaluable. If you want to figure what they “timewise” cost you, put your time between 20 and 50 per hour worked depending on the difficulty and tediousness :) Gifts are never cheap, no matter their cost — if they are gifts you thought about for the recipient and you really think the recipient will like them.

My husband and I put a $100 limit on gifts for each other. My siblings and I decided on not exchanging gifts this year since we went to a concert together over the summer. Not sure how much yet we’re going to spend on our parents – probably another $300 or so total. So looks like we’ll spend around $500 on gifts.

Wow, this is embarassing, I am planning on spending about 800 this year. Some of this will be done using amazon gift cards that I have earned over the past few months and some will be donations to charity, but still a big number. It’s down from 1,000 last year, so progress right? This is for 11 people.

After last Christmas (barely scrapping by), we started budgeting for this Christmas in January. So we have $240 to spend on 8-10 people. Then for presents between me and my wife are planning $300. Yay for budgets!

If I don’t count the massive check I’ll be writing my parents to assist with an upcoming family vacation (they’re footing the bill, but I will contribute so I don’t feel like a leech), about $400 for 8-9 people.

As little as possible. I’m on the hunt for sales and coupons.
One kid, two sets of parents, three nieces/nephew, four or five friends kids, and each other. Expecting $700-800 this year. Hubby likes to spend money

I plan on spending under $900 for approximately 12 people (mostly family). My three closest friends and I agreed to do a Christmas dinner together instead of gifts this year – should be a good time! #budgetsaresexy

$100 – casual Chinese dinner for my parents and in-laws, and that’s it. We are not a big physical-gift family. For my husband and I, though, we are taking a vacation during Christmas, so that’s our gift to each other.

Well I have to buy for seven immediate family members, the boyfriend, and whoever I get for secret santa this year out of my best friends. At $20/each that comes out to just under $200, plus probably a little extra for the boy so let’s say $250. I can totally handle that!

I am spending a total of $40 on all my family/friends to include baking supplies and yarn. For the first time in my life am on disability (ughh!) so I am on even more of a budget than normal. Everyone is getting homemade sweets/treats and I am knitting a blanket for a friend with a new baby.

We will probably be spending about $700 for 9-10 people. A little higher than I would like, but my BF is really into gifting and is foreign to the concept of watching the christmas budget. Work in progress though! :-)

Since this is Budgets Are Sexy, I think you’d appreciate the fact that we spend very little money on gifts–well, kind of. We actually tap into our Discover card’s cash back reward for spending lots of money throughout the year. (Hmmmmm….lol.) If you pay your card balance in full each month, like we do, this reward program is awesome! We get hundreds of dollars in gift cards every year in the Fall, and we either give a gift card as a gift or shop for a more personal gift. We also give passes to Disneyland (cha-ching!) and cold hard cash to all of our children and my daughter’s spouse. Who doesn’t love the gift of money, right? And it’s easy. I like easy! Our holiday gifts this year will likely cost us around $5000-, which I guess isn’t that “sexy” after all.

My budget is about $1200 for 6 people (and two dogs). It would be a lot lower, but I couldn’t help but pre-order the Xbox one for the boyfriend on Amazon this morning. More than I would usually spend on a gift, but since he just cleaned out his “fun money” savings account to buy my ENGAGEMENT RING, I’d say he deserves it :D

We’re trying to spend as little as possible this year by looking for deals and using coupons – our goal is to spend less than what we did last year (because we didn’t plan so well last Christmas!). Our goal is to come in at or under $500 for 10 people, though I am budgeting an extra $100 just in case (and for extras like bringing food to family gatherings, baking supplies to make cookies).

I thinking my numbers are going to come in around $350/$400. My brother just got engaged and found out he’s gonna be a daddy. So I’m gonna spend a lot on him and his soon to be step kids (my soon to be step-nieces and nephew). The only other people I buy for are my parents. And they don’t need or ask for much. So some practical stuff and maybe some fun stuff and of course some holiday chocolate for them!

I’ve already spent about $50 on my gift for my sister. Then we’re planning to go together on a big gift for my mom. (She wants a new camera! But nothing too fancy which is nice.) So I’m thinking that’ll be about another $50-$75 per person going in on the gift depending on what we get. My dad is pretty low-key so I’ll probably save money with him. Then I have a few friends I’m buying for as well. Although for them I’m seriously considering just buying all of them books. Because… you know…. I love books and most of my friends do too. I’ll estimate about $15 per book. Which means my total will be…. between $250-$300. Which isn’t bad.

We tend to stick to about $100-150 per gift basket that we put together for the parents and siblings. Kind of like Oprah’s Favorite Things, we find the best stuff that we really enjoyed from our travels all year and give it to everyone as a gift. This typically includes a night out with us throughout the year and all kinds of other various items.

Budget $1000 for about 50 people. These include coworkers, family, and friends. This averages about $20 a piece. Some will get something higher and some will be smaller. Typically my budget is higher but money is a bit tight this holiday season. I have a huge family and a ton of coworkers hence 50 people.

We will spend around $850. AAA memberships for older daughters, Raspberry Pi for younger daughter, olive oil for sisters, LLBean gifts for parents. Oh – and the mailman, hairdresser, 3 music teachers, etc. It all adds up!

Welp, it looks like I’ll be at the high end of the spectrum. If I had to calculate it all, we’d be right around $2500 or so for each other, our families (multiple parents and family), and 4 godchildren, plus 10 nieces and nephews, etc.. Thanks J. Money for making me see just how depressing that is lol

My wife and I will probably spend less than $50 on each other and zero on our 18.5 week old — he already has all he could want and then the grandparents will be sure to spoil him. We focus on the meaning of the holiday and not the gifts. We run our finances so that we can buy things throughout the year rather than saying “Hey, buy this for me at Christmas.”

We plan on about $400. This is just for my husband’s family – mom and dad, grandma, brother, sister in law and their 2 girls. My family lives in Hong Kong so we don’t get anything for my side.

Husband and I don’t buy gifts for each other for Christmas. We are so fortunate that if we need/want something we can just go get it anytime of the year (within reason, of course) so we don’t need a special time to give each other something. Plus like most American we have too much ‘stuff’ already!

We will likely spend less than $300 for 8 people. We just had our first child and a number of our family members have tight budgets this holiday season, so if anything, we’ll get essentials for the baby at most using gift money from others and gift cards we still have, and smaller gifts for other people. I plan to give apple butter in decorated jars as presents to coworkers and friends. We prepared it last year and there’s no way we’ll eat it all, so better to give it away!

My budget for this year is $500 which will be spent on my son, 2 nephews, 2 brothers, 2 SIL (sis n laws), my grandmother, my son’s father, Toys for Tots and the 4 children of a friend of mine that lost her job recently. I spent almost that amount on my son alone last year, but this year I discovered “Budgets are Sexy”, so I have definitely reigned in my spending. Thanks so much and all of you have a very Thankful Thanksgiving!!!!

The BF and I have budgeted $1000 for this year. Right now we are thinking we will only spend about $700 of it though.

We buy/bought (most of our shopping is already done) for 8 nieces and nephews, 4 brothers and sisters, three parents, six grandparents, and one another. So the grand total is 23 people for approximately $700-$1000.

I know it seems like a lot, but we have huge families, and we saved for a long period of time to avoid going into debt for it!

$200 for my preschool son, my spouse, 9 nieces and nephews, 6 kids of friends, and stockings for 5 people. I pick up gifts all year when they’re 70% off. I’m almost done, too! I just have to pick up the stocking items, which I get at the national drugstores that have lots of freebies on Black Friday.

I like getting my Dad and stepmom a large gift every year since we don’t see them often (opposite sides of the country). I’ll probably spend $120 on them, $50 on my boyfriend. I don’t buy gifts for anyone else, but can expect to spend $25 on wine to take to dinners or white elephant party gifts. So we’re looking at just around $200.

How much do you plan on spending on Xmas gifts this year?
(And for how many people?)

There are about 8 people I have to buy Christmas presents for. My girlfriend and I will probably split 7 of them 50/50, but I obviously can’t go 50/50 on her present haha. We don’t spend too extravagently for the holidays and I’ve put money aside since the beginning of November to pay for my Christmas gifts as well.

We’re doing about $300 for 6 people, myself, my wife, our daughter, and our three nephews. :) Plus we are hosting Christmas dinner this year so that’s adding to the total cost. We’re skipping buying for the other adults this year to save money.

I plan on spending eight hundred dollars for eleven people. This is less than last year where I spent over 1k, but for more people. I am trying to be more frugal this year and stick to our budget. I put one hundred dollars a month aside for Christmas, starting in January so even though we spend a lot of money, it’s all in cash. The days of charging our Christmas are long over.

We’re planning on spending about $400 on 9 people from our joint account. My in-laws didn’t really want much at all, though, so we spent only $73 on them both! I feel kind of bad about that but it’s really all they wanted. We’ll get my aunt’s family (4 people) a $50 gift card to… somewhere they eat, probably Red Lobster, since my aunt doesn’t cook. My brother wants to spend more than usual on my dad but my dad never uses anything we get him, so I’m hesitant to do that!

My husband and I are doing gifts to each other out of our own accounts. In theory we have a $100 limit but we both break that by $30 or so.

For my entire life I have spent way too much at Christmas. My parents set me up with this vision of mounds of presents as the expectation for xmas. So if there aren’t mounds of presents I somehow feel disappointed. There are three people in our family and a pretty large extended family. I plan on making a number of presents and scoring deals where I can to get what I want as gifts. In the end I am hoping to spend $600 on 13 people! I have been lucky enough to find amazing steals on a few items for the baby – and he still doesn’t really understand xmas – so I plan on just wrapping a bunch of boxes and letting him play with the boxes and wrapping paper.

I am doing gifts just for my mom and boyfriend this year and only spending 100 respectfully because they both are on board with me paying down my debts and my moms christmas present to me is giving me 350 to put towards my debt

Our budget is $500 for 9 people but half of that is in Amazon points we’ve earned throughout the year so strictly speaking, the cash-out-of-pocket budget is $250. Not added into that number is the amount spent on baking supplies to bake goodies for neighbors & co-workers which will be another $100.

How much do you plan on spending on Xmas gifts this year?
(And for how many people?)

I just became a home owner in August, then found out i wasnt sick just “pregnant” shortly after and now im bracing my financials for maternity leave in January 2014, So that leaves me with only spending on my 7yr old daughter and hubby. So my usual $1500 christmas budget for the whole family/inlaws just flew out the window and im trying to win the money to hold me over.. if not ill keep it under $300…

I generally try to spend between 10 and 20 dollars on each person unless I see something that is just perfect for them. A wedding and a new nephew mean I have a couple more presents to buy this year bringing my total to 9 people. So between 90 and 180 dollars for this holiday season.

buying for my family of 4 and will spend around 400.00. I plan on having a christmas planning session this weekend with my husband to decide what we will get with that money (and hoping we can actually come in under budget!!)

My husband and I are both from large families; he’s the youngest of seven, and I’m the oldest of six. For my hubby’s side, we buy gifts for our 17 nieces and nephews instead of for his siblings and their spouses. Add in my mother-in-law, my mom, grandparents, my 5 siblings (no kids yet!), AND gifts for my hubby, I/we have about 28 people to shop for.

My husband gets a lot of things for free at work, and we’ve been looking for discounts for items year-round. With that being said, we’ll probably spend about $600 collectively on others, with most of that being for our moms. I’ll probably spend about $300 on him, which means *MY* part of our Christmas spending will be around $600.

I expect to spend $450, maybe $500. Small immediate family, plus two extended family gift exchanges, and gifts for my cousins, since they’re too young to do the gift exchange. The extra $50 is because I will probably go a little over budget with my nieces.

My husband and I have saved approximately $400 for Christmas for all of our family and friends, but there’s no telling how much we will actually spend (under the $400 saved).There are between 10 and 15 people we will be shopping for. We might give some gifts to families rather than individuals.

We’re probably going to spend $600 on Christmas gifts on 9 people. We budget for $50 per person in the family, plus some small gifts for friends, and gifts to ourselves. Sometimes it’s less because I shop year round for some items, so I don’t have to buy them at full price.

We are keeping it very simple this Christmas due to job changes. We will probably spend $200 total for our whole family which is about 15 people total. We’re planning and giving a lot of homemade gifts and treats and just enjoying time spent together!

We are planning on spending $250 on gifts, not including each other. That’s for 7 people. For our own gifts we are going to do something like a weekend get-away or a nice date night instead of exchanging gifts. So maybe another $150 for that, or more if we take a trip.

About $50 for one person. Doing secret Santa with a group of friends. Also will be out of the country for Christmas so didn’t plan on purchasing gifts for others since we will be together and spending money on the trip.

I plan on spending $300 on 8 – 10 people. We are planning a couple of ‘couple gifts’, so I’m hoping that will keep it down. Plus, we only buy one small item for the kids (4 and 6) because our parents think “Please don’t go overboard” means something different than I do. :)

2 sets of parents, my brother, a handful of friends, some of my husband’s extended family… planning to spend about $750. We sold our iPhones when we got our new ones and were able to get back nearly what we spent on them, so that $375 will subsidize about half of our Christmas spending!

By the way – what other item (especially an electronic!) can you use every day for years and then sell it, receiving 85-95% of what you originally paid?! SUCH a good deal.

$20. Our immediate family doesn’t celebrate Christmas, but husband’s extended family does a family gift exchange with a $20 limit. We’ll probably get a small Chanukah gift for our niece and nephew, too. We’re thinking a Highlights subscription.

A few hundred on 7-8 people. I know that’s vague, but I’ve picked up little things on sale throughout the year and I don’t know what that totals. I’ll spend probably another $200 or so between now and Christmas.

I plan on keeping to a budget of $500 this year. This includes presents for my mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, my two nephews, and the boyfriend. I am always super excited to show everyone what I picked out for them (and unfortunately have a bad habit of telling them what it is before they open it :))

I am on a strict budget and will be credit card debt free by the end of the year! But I like to splurge a little for other people around the holidays :)

Let’s hope my best laid plans actually turn out. For about 20 people, I’m planning on $800. My new nephew will only be 7 months old by xmas time so shouldn’t be too much. My remaining sibs and I are helping out a navy family(they don’t know it yet!) who helped escort my big brother home for the last time. So, that’ll probably be another few hundred just to help out. Thanks for the great blog posts by the way! Helps make my day!

Wow! I love seeing all of the different comments…it really makes me realize how crazy my family is (I’ve always thought so, but this verifies it!)
Our Christmas list includes gifts for 27 people. (and that’s not counting our own 2 kids) My husband and I both come from divorced parents, who have re-married (twice), so we have a total of 12 siblings (halfs/steps, etc). Over the last several years, we’ve implemented not buying gifts for siblings, but we’ve got lots of nephews and nieces, three sets of parents and 3 sets of grandparents! We’ve got $1000 budgeted for this year, and will spend about $100 on each of our kids, and send small gifts with them for their teachers. We love having lots of family, but xmas time gets a little ridiculous!

Christmas = the worst. Same old songs, same annoying commercials. The requirement to buy new things instead of even better/more used items for the same $. We’ll probably spend about $600 for 8 people each year until I can convert the family members to either accept hugs as presents or my anti-consumerist frugality as a lifestyle…

We usually budget $300 for everyone, that’s for seven people, and we do not include ourselves. This year though, it’ll be zero. Just got told to file unemployment, so it’s a no spend holiday season! :)

I plan on spending under $500. I don’t usually budget for Christmas, but I use the extra money I have after bills and savings to shop. The $500 amount is about what I’ve been spending each of the last 3 years.

I’ll spend around $600 (which I save throughout the year in small increments with each paycheck). I spend most of it on my immediate family (2 parents, 2 siblings), and the rest on extended family members, and friends/bosses. Total number of people is probably 15.

I plan on spending exactly $189.72 on an small entertainment unit for my uncle. This is the year of giving and I thought this would be another great gift for him. Heck, I donated my kidney to him in March so why not spoil him again :-). Thanks!

Because we are in the wedding planning process, we are trying to budget $300 on 10 people. Although it has been super challenging, it has been so much fun hunting for bargain gifts that don’t look like $15 dollars!. We have been going through clearance racks at every store, hitting up thrift shops, and groupon-ing like crazy!

This year I’m looking at approximately $370 for 7 people. That’s $50/each into college funds for nieces and nephew, and approximately $130 for my husband’s gift, $15 & $25 for two people from family gift exchange. Gifts for everyone are already decided on, so this is pretty accurate.

Thanks for hosting this giveaway! I love retailmenot! It’s the first place I go to when I need a coupon.

Anyway…for this year I have about 30 people on my list and will spend about 600 dollars…that’s just an estimate too! There are some big ticket items in there though like a pc. Yeah…long list, but I have a big family.

Last year my family simplified Christmas and we all bought gifts for pets and children, but the adults drew names and we only bought for that one adult and imposed a spending limit of $75 for the person whose name you chose. It REALLY pared things down and saved money, time, stress, etc. We will probably do that again this year, so I will probably spend $300 or less for eight beings. :)

I plan to spend $300 for 6 people, my mother (I think it’s the law right?), four God children (no kids of my own) and one nephew (coolest kid on the planet). It will be pretty tight but I’ll waive my magic bargain shopper wand and make it happen.

I am so impressed with your reader’s frugality! We will spend about $350 on gifts 9 people (split unevenly), plus another $700 for a 4-day trip (leaving on Christmas day). The trip will be off-set by a cash present our parent’s give us every year (God bless them), and we will end up covering exactly half of it. Sounds like a lot up front, so one thing I do every year is eat all the way through our pantry/freezer and buy minimal groceries through the month’s of November and December. Just saving $25-50 a week helps out a lot and makes the holidays less stressful. Plus, it feels good to really go through our cupboards/fridge and clean everything out. No more freezer burned meat taking up space. Happy holidays!

I typically try to keep it under $50 per person. Thankfully right now I only have my parents, sister, and brother in law to buy for! My girlfriends from college and I always get together and we each purchase a Christmas ornament that we then exchange white elephant style. It’s been a great tradition that saves us money and gives us a chance to get together every year! :)

We used to spend about $1500 for a huge amount of people, but we are cutting way back this year. About $200 on each of our 2 kids, $250 for 6 nieces and nephews and $200 donated to kids in need at the school I teach at. So that puts us at $850 even with cutting back. UGHHH!
You would be proud though. I went to Rite Aid last week and purchased $150 worth of gift card and earned $30 in ups. So I donated the 150 in cards the other 50 in cash and the 30 I earned in ups. That turned my $200 donation into $230.
My parents also donated to my school. We decided to do this instead of exchanging with each other. It is a much better way to go as we really don’t need anything but some of my students have nothing. My parents also helping the school still feels like a gift to me. It is so exciting to see them wearing the new clothes they received when returning after break!

Honestly, unless we get a job (or jobs) between now and Christmas, I think my gift buying for the season is done. I’ve spent about $100 for 3 people… well, 4 if you count the little gift I got myself way back when but am waiting to reveal until the two similar items I got for others are opened. And most of that money is for gifts for my toddler. BUT, I also used approximately $80 worth of rewards toward gifts too (mostly for my daughter, too).

I plan on spending approximately $600 for 8 people. However, I have a feeling this number will go up as my brother and I agreed to split the costs of our parents Christmas presents (tickets to an outdoor hockey game) and it doesn’t look like he’ll be paying me back anytime soon so I’ll just eat his half.

I have already started. I have a total of 16 people to buy for. I have spent $33 on 6 people so far. And I plan to spend less than $80 on the remainder. This money would help though :) Two full time students, with only one full time income, makes things challenging to spend more.

$30 each for 4 nieces and nephews. $200 for husband. I didn’t want to buy any other adults gifts, but hubby insists on $50 for his parents. Maybe $20 for our awesome neighbors. Everyone else in my family gets our presence for their present.

Shoot, forgot our kid. She already said that gifts from Santa are the only ones we don’t have to pay money for. So much 6 year old wisdom, but we’ll probably spend $100 on her, $200 if we decide to get the new bike, but that one might wait until b-day.

Will probably spend around $200 on my partner, $50 on my dog (Yes, he’s spoiled rotten and wouldn’t have It any other way! :D), and roughly about $100 or so on my parents and sisters. Were keeping It much more simpler this year and not trying to overspend on gifts for each other as we have years past.

This year, I spent (yup, I’m done) $923.50 on one person…my son. He has wanted a computer for so long and we’ve been putting it off because we just didn’t think he needed one. We figured as he’s in 8th grade and already taking two high school classes that it was probably time. We don’t normally spend that much on him (not even close!) for Christmas, but this is his combo Christmas/birthday/8th grade grad gift. We’ve been putting away since January, as we do every year, so we were ready for it.

This is very tight with us financially I mean. Me launching on a new career after staying at home with kids for 10 years so the initial investment was taken us back a bit. I am planning to spend $100 for my 3 kids plus husband and another $50 for a family member who we lotto to give a xmas gift.

We’re spending about $300 on 15 people. This is accomplished mostly through tins of homemade treats and hand carved wooden toys and jewelry boxes. Which is then balanced out with gift cards to folks we don’t even know very well.

The wife and I usually don’t exchange gifts, but I am getting her a prenatal massage this year. We only buy gifts for the kids in the family so 5 nieces and nephews plus a message will most likely set me back about $175.

We sort of hope we don’t have to spend any money, but we’re avoiding the awkward conversation with my in-laws about it (they’ve already made xmas wish lists!!!). My family doesn’t really do presents. But, if we decide to cave, probably a grand total of about $200 for 9 people.

We will not be making holiday purchases this year. Our priorities are a little more focused on meeting our basic budget each month and everyone we would typically buy presents for is aware that we will not be exchanging gifts this year. This will actually be the first year we don’t buy anything at all for the holidays, including taking advantage of sales for personal use.

Hi, J. Money! I plan on spending about $800 – I have about 15 people on my list. That’s the budget…..but I’ve been known to blow past it. I have a daughter that’s in college, one that is 12 and my honey. Probably $500 on just the three of them. The rest is whatever I found while I’m out for my parents and close relatives. Wish me luck!

I expect to spend about $350 total on a combination of 9 people and/or families. I know it’s not all about the money spent, but I’d still like to do more. Unfortunately, the grad school stipend doesn’t make it very far!

We plan on spending about $500. We’ve already spent $50 for our youngest and plan on about the same for his older brother. The rest will be spent on gifts for our nieces and nephews. So a total of 5 children, us two and our moms.

$120 on 3 people. My gifts are handmade (a quilt and 2 paintings) so the cost covers the fabric and frames. I made my gifts over the summer and am planning to buy the frames during the xmas sales. Planning ahead sure pays off!

For my wife and I, we plan to spend about $300-$500 dollars between five different parents and one sister. That amount will be coming out of our joint account. For each other, my wife and I are allotting about $100-$200 for each of us to spend on each other, and will be deducted from our personal accounts.

I found a sweet custom made gift that I can personalize for everyone in the family and make it unique to them. Total cost – $15 per person – 10 people, only $150 this year for xmas – significant savings!

My family / friends and I have a GREAT Christmas and make things as simple as possible. The adults MAKE things for each other – homemade bread, photo albums, etc and only buy a few items. We buy gifts for the kids only, and there are 5 that I’m buying for this year @ 100 each. Unfortunately for them, I’m that uncle who buys educational toys / books / musical stuff.

My budget for this year is $600 for 16 family members, 6 dogs (they have to receive gifts too!) one neighbor, and the mailman :) I love the idea of using credit card rewards to pay for presents, but we usually only save up enough points to get giftcards for date night. Next year we might try saving them for Christmas!

I am planning on not spending a lot on Christmas gifts this year because I’m getting ready to go to Antarctica and I just don’t have a ton of money to be spending! My parents and my in-laws will get gifts of locally-made consumables (because I live in Portland and that’s how we roll here ;o), which are always delicious and well-accepted!

I used to spend a lot because I felt pressure to match the gifts that people got me but I realized it made other people feel the same pressure to spend the same amount and we were just perpetuating a cycle. So I try and do $20-30 per person, a little more or less depending on how close they are but I think people would rather have a gift they’d appreciate that was cheaper than an expensive gift that they don’t really want.

We usually spend around 1500 :( This includes 4 children, grandparents, godchildren, friends, gift exchanges and teachers. I try to be extra generous for the teachers because it is a private school and salaries are not as high as they should be.

Im thinking about $300.. I didnt work as much this year as past.. So just a little something to say im thinking of you.. Im sure everyone got pinched in some way this past 5 years.. Ill be looking for sales and coupon codes for sure
Mom
Dad
Hunny
Daughter
Son
Grandbaby
Nephew

Honestly: $0.00 on gifts. Only money we’ll spend is on a geat feast with each other to enjoy each other’s company.
For: 9 people.
We’ve agreed to try something crazy and just go all out on spending a great time together for a couple days rather than spend that time looking for stuff, wrapping stuff and unwrapping stuff.
Best. Christmas. Ever.

I honestly wish I knew the exact amount! Around $200 for family (4 people) and another $50-$100 for a local angel tree– my class of high school students decided to “adopt” a child and provide him with a Christmas party full of gifts (and of course some necessities as well: jacket, socks, etc).

$300 or less is my goal… I’m hand making a lot of things and putting together gifts composed of a lot of small stuff to really personalize them this year. This will be for about 20 people–my immediate family members, friends and my team at work.

My other projects

Disclaimer

I, J. Money, only claim the thoughts from my head. I am not a banker, CPA, money manager or anything else of that sort. Please seek a professional for any "real" advice. More info: privacy & disclosure page